Some colleges have already deserted their need-blind policies. According to Donald C. Wolfe, acting director of financial aid at Brown, the Providence college no longer practices needblind admissions.

Still, amid predictions of gloom and doom at other colleges, Harvard set a new record last spring by awarding $29.5 million in grants and $53 million in total financial aid, according to Miller.

But Miller and financial aid officers say that colleges around the country, perhaps even Harvard, will have to abandon need-blind admissions and need-based aid in favor of a merit-based system. And the consent decree may accelerate the change.

"I think that's what's going to happen and what I see happening nationally," said Miller. "The inability to talk to each other is an accelerant in this falling apart of need-blind admissions."

A Real Threat to Diversity

How long can Harvard hold out? There is currently no cap on the financial aid budget, but the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has a deficit of more than $10 million, and former Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky imposed a six percent across-the-board cut in the operating budget last year. If other Ivy League schools move to a merit-based system and instigate a bidding war for students, Harvard could feel pressure to heed the call to arms.

"It's going to be hard to know how schools are going to react. We certainly can't bury our heads in the sand," said Miller. "On the other hand, we feel need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid is the best way to build a quality student body."

And, if need-blind admissions go, the big loser could be diversity.

"I think there's a real threat to diversity in all its forms," said Miller. "There's a real threat that diversity is going to disappear in some parts of higher education."

There are already hints that the consent decree may be taking its toll.

"Our middle income students, especially middle income minorities, didn't choose to go to the Ivies [this past year]," said Booker.

The irony of the situation, Miller says, is that, at a time when it might be in students' interest for aid offices to communicate and find a solution to the mounting financial aid crisis, he and his colleagues find their hands tied.

"We had one wonderful phone call," said Miller. "The mother of a student who was looking at wildly different offers called and said, 'Why don't you folks all get together and talk about this?'"